Learning breaststroke: why the legs do not cooperate and what you can practice at home [2026]

How the breaststroke kick works

The legs do not cooperate because the kick is different from what most children think: not a downward kick, but a push backwards, with the feet turned outward and a rest moment between two kicks. On top of that, the movement starts sideways, with a foot position your child uses nowhere else. At home you can practise the sequence. The feeling of the water you only learn in the pool.

This is how the movement looks: first the heels toward the buttocks, then the feet turn outward, then a half circle until the legs are together again. Between two kicks there is a short glide phase in which your child does nothing and precisely because of that moves forward.

Whoever mixes up arm stroke, leg kick and gliding, loses speed and becomes exhausted. Children who are just starting breaststroke do this almost all the time: they kick, gasp for air and hardly move forward. That is not unwillingness and not poor motor skills.

Why kicking is the first reaction

Kicking keeps the head above water. It is the reflex of a child who does not yet trust floating, and that reflex makes sense: if you are afraid of sinking, you start moving. Only kicking pushes the water down, and down is not forward. That is why an instructor first builds up floating and gliding, and only after that the stroke itself.

The glide phase is not a pause

The work happens in the glide phase. The resistance is lowest then, and your child covers the most distance without using a single muscle. Children who skip the glide phase swim harder than necessary and go less far. From the side you see that in the splashing: the more water your child throws up, the shorter the rest moments are.

Why the kick is much harder than the arm stroke

You can imitate the arm stroke with your hands in the air. You cannot do that with the kick: the foot position, the rotation of the thigh and the timing are hard to feel when you lie in the water and must breathe at the same time. On top of that, the movement starts sideways, a direction children rarely make while swimming. It therefore usually takes longer before the kick looks as intended.

The four mistakes you most often see from the side

Parents standing at the side usually only see splashing. Still, there are four things you can recognise with the naked eye, even if your child is ten metres away.

1. The knees go out before the heels are up

This is the best-known mistake. The knees immediately splay out like a frog, while the heels are still low near the water. The result is a kick that pushes water aside instead of backwards. The correct sequence is the reverse: first the heels toward the buttocks, only then open the knees and turn the feet outward.

2. The feet remain pointed like a ballerina

Nice for a dance performance, useless in the water. To be able to push you need the foot at a right angle to the lower leg, with the soles facing backward. Children who point their toes push with the instep and lose almost all propulsion. Often one image helps: as if you kick a door shut with the soles of your feet behind you.

3. The head stays up the whole stroke

In breaststroke the head goes under water during the glide phase. A child who keeps the head high to look or talk brings the hips down and lies like a boat with an anchor behind it. This is also the reason many children are out of breath after two lengths.

4. Arms and legs work at the same time

Then the two halves of the stroke fight each other. The arms should bring your child up and forward, the legs do the rest. Whoever pulls and kicks simultaneously stays in the same place. A child who does this often moves faster rather than slower, simply because they do not move forward.

What you can practise at home without a pool

Dry practice helps with the sequence of the movement. It does not teach your child how water feels, so do not expect miracles and keep it short. Three times ten minutes in a week is more than enough, and it should stay fun.

Frog legs on the sofa or a mattress

Have your child lie on their stomach with the buttocks at the edge of the sofa or on a mattress, legs free. Then: heels to the buttocks, feet outward, legs together again. Slowly, ten times, and have your child count out loud. This lets the body feel the sequence without the distraction of water and breathing.

Counting the glide phase

In the bathtub, in a toddler pool or in the shallow end: after each stroke count aloud together to two before the next stroke begins. Your child learns that waiting belongs to the stroke. This is one of the few things you as a parent can un-teach at home, and it works surprisingly fast.

Exhaling into a tub of water

A tub or sink with water, face in and blow bubbles. Not spectacular, but the basis of every breaststroke: exhale underwater instead of holding your breath and lifting your head. Do this ten seconds at a time, not longer.

Why an image works better than a correction

Research into motor learning, also with children, shows that instructions about the effect of the movement usually work better than instructions about a body part. So not "pull your arm back", but "push the water back". A 2025 review of swimming lesson methods for children aged 5 to 12 names this as one of the promising methods, with the caveat that the evidence base for swimming lesson methods in children is still thin: of the 23 studies found, most had no follow-up after a few weeks.

What to leave to the instructor

The temptation is large to stand coaching after the lesson. With breaststroke that usually does not work, and sometimes it slows things down.

Too many corrections backfire

A six-year-old can process about one instruction at a time. If they get three, they remember none and start thinking about their legs instead of swimming. The instructor therefore builds the kick in steps, often over several weeks, and deliberately skips things that come later.

How to request a conversation with the instructor

Do not ask "is he doing it well?", because that gets a yes or no. Ask what your child is currently working on and what helps at home. One concrete question usually yields a useful answer, and you immediately hear whether your idea about home practice fits what happens in the lesson.

When extra practice does help

If your child is afraid of the water or it takes a long time before they dare to put their face under, then calm practice in the bath is useful. If it is only about the kick, the lesson itself is the best place: there is water, space and someone who can see it.

What to watch for in progress

Swimming lessons often feel like a black box for parents. Still, there are a few benchmarks that show whether your child is making progress, without asking how every lesson went.

Distances per stage

As a guideline: in the curriculum of Swim England the breaststroke kick appears in stage 4 with 10 metres of kick swimming. In stage 5 a child swims 10 metres breaststroke, in stage 6 with six rhythmic breaths, and in stage 7 25 metres. A child who has been working for a year and still does not reach 10 metres breaststroke is therefore not automatically behind: the buildup is deliberately slow, with lots of repetition over short distances.

Knee problems occur more often with breaststroke

In competitive swimmers knee pain with breaststroke is a known issue. A review article on injuries in competitive swimmers describes that knee complaints occur more often with breaststroke than with other strokes, mainly because of the rotation of the knee when pushing outward. In children in lessons that is rare, but it is a reason to keep the kick small and calm instead of practising it forcefully. If your child complains of pain on the inside of the knee, report it to the instructor and have it checked.

What you see back in the app

On the levels and skills the kick is listed as a separate exercise, with a score from 0 to 6. That way you see whether your child is stuck on the kick or on breathing, and those are two different problems with two different solutions. Parents see those scores in the app, without having to ask after every lesson.

If your child stalls at the same point

Almost every child pauses in progress for a while. That is normal and it rarely means something is wrong.

A plateau usually calls for relaxation, not more force

Children who get stuck on the kick often work harder: faster kicking, more splashing, more fatigue. What helps is the opposite. Smaller movements, longer glide phase, and a few weeks in which no one pulls on the technique. Often it suddenly falls into place after that.

When you should raise the alarm

If your child remains on the same exercise for months while attending faithfully, or goes to the lesson reluctantly, then it is worth a conversation. Not as a complaint, but as a question: what does the instructor see, and does that match what you notice at home? Sometimes the problem is in the group allocation, not in your child.

Conclusion

The breaststroke kick is difficult because the movement starts sideways, requires an unusual foot position and only works with a glide phase nobody does naturally. At home you can practise the sequence and teach your child to wait between two strokes. The technique itself belongs in the water, with someone who can see it.

Read more about the buildup of the strokes at which stroke your child learns first and at breathing during swimming lessons. Parents find the skills per level on the parents page, swim schools on the instructors page.

Sources

• Swim England: Learn to Swim Stage 1 to 7 awards, consulted 29 October 2026
• Swimming.org: Tips for improving your breaststroke kicking, consulted 29 October 2026
• Swimming.org: Improving breaststroke technique, consulted 29 October 2026
• Learning how to swim in 5 to 12 year old children: a scoping review of evidence based motor learning methods, 2025
• Epidemiology of injuries and prevention strategies in competitive swimmers, Sports Health, 2012